The Devil Made Me Do It!
My father said, advising me
On a winter's afternoon,
'If you ever sup with the devil, son,
Then sup with a long spoon.'
'He'll always try to cozen you,
To draw you into his schemes,
Whenever you're down and out, my son
He'll fill your head with dreams.'
'He'll make you feel grandiloquent,
With a power so sublime,
You'll think you're all but immortal, son
As you stray from the bottom line.'
'And slowly, slowly, he will fix
His hooks into your soul,
You'll never notice the hooks, my son
As you head toward your goal.'
'But come the day of reckoning
When your hens come home to roost,
It's - 'Sign on the dotted line…', my son,
Too late then for a truce! '
'So don't you ever sign your name,
That's my advice to you,
That parchment's never the worst of things
The Devil has plans to do.'
'He has a place set up for you
In his deep and dark dominions,
Stoking the fires of hell, my son
With the rest of the Devil's minions.'
* * * * *
Many a year has passed since then,
Time tends us to forget,
I only thought of his words as those
Of some long lost vignette.
But then I started a business up
In a modest little shop,
With fishing tackle and bait, it boomed,
I thought it would never stop.
The profits soared, I built a store
So large, grandiloquent,
My rivals slandered me more and more
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poem by David Lewis Paget
Added by Poetry Lover
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